'More pro users are choosing to build an environment at home': the biggest opportunities in the home studio market

'More pro users are choosing to build an environment at home': the biggest opportunities in the home studio market

From recording outside of the studio, to a wider knowledge among customers of the technology on offer, what are the biggest opportunities for manufacturers targeting the 'bedroom producer'?

By Tara Lepore
, Nov 24, 2017

As the home studio market continues to prosper in the age of the bedroom producer, PSNEurope caught up with some of the sector’s key players to check its pulse and find out where it’s headed as we close in on the end of 2017.

1. Remote recording

Tim Page, marketing manager EMEA pro audio, Audio-Technica said: “Location recording and production is a big one for us, so moving outside of the home. Records are being worked on and mixed (to at least an ‘almost release ready’ level) on planes, trains and in coffee shops these days. And young bands can hire a decent rehearsal space, take a laptop, interface and selection of affordable mics and record amazing quality live performances these days – it really frees up the creative process from being tied to one room.”

2. Converting a home into a multi-room recording studio

Rob Jenkins

Rob Jenkins, technical director at Focusrite comments: “Two elements create opportunity, technology and innovation. The computer transport and the interconnection of devices are being constantly improved by new technology like Thunderbolt and Ethernet. Now it is possible to have very high channel counts at high sample rates at very low latency running between multiple pieces of equipment that can turn any environment into an improvised recording area. Converting a home into a temporary multi-room recording studio is now possible for a reasonable budget.

“Additionally, innovations in algorithms allow users to control their listening space as never before. Things like the Sonarworks speaker calibration system allow the user to improve their listening area without having to resort to architectural interventions.”

Quested Monitoring Services director Stuart Down shared a similar view. He told PSNEurope: “We see [the home studio market] as a growing area, but maybe not in the typical home or bedroom studio scenario. More and more pro users are choosing to build an environment at home to work from day to day. In some areas we have seen this translate in to large format soffit based systems going in to what are domestic based studios.”

3. Sophistication of technology

Howard Jones, marketing director at Genelec, said: “As a fundamentally pro brand many people come to us when they realise that their entry level purchase is not really going to be a speaker-for-life, and they need a more trustworthy reference monitor system. However, some home studios are becoming way more sophisticated, and due to our DSP-and-room-correction software approach, modest rooms that might once have been tracking-only studios can now deliver really decent mixes that translate brilliantly.”

4. Wider product knowledge among customers

Stuart Down

Quested’s Stuart Down continues: “Our core user base tends to be more the pro user, but we have seen a trend from some of the smaller ‘bedroom’ users upgrading what they work with. I think this is driven by a wider knowledge of what is out there and a proper understanding of what a studio monitor is meant to do.”